New Delhi, 6 July 2007

Reservations For Muslims

MINDLESS HINDUSTANI KHICHRI

By Poonam I Kaushish 

Two men knocked at God’s door wanting to experience Heaven. Before letting them in, God enquired their religion and caste. The first said he was a Muslim Dalit. God welcomed him with open arms. The second said he was a Hindu Brahmin. God replied: “Sorry, your quota for Heaven is full.” The moral of the story: Even God heeds the diktats of the Manmohan Singh-led UPA Government’s appeasement policy.

Funny? Not at all. It is a sad reflection of our times, where quotas and queues are the all-season favourites. Where people are being compartmentalized for sacrifice at the altar of caste-creed politics in the name of social and economic upliftment. With all merrily converting positive affirmation into vote percentage. Clearly, the day is not too far when India’s cricket team and casualty wards in hospitals will be reserved on caste basis.

The latest concoction of the mindless Hindustani khichri called minority appeasement is from Andhra Pradesh. Perhaps, working on the premise of third time lucky, the State Government last week decided to promulgate an ordinance to provide four per cent reservation to 15 groups of 'socially and educationally backward' Muslims in professional educational institutions and Government employment with effect from the current academic year. Asserted the State Minister for Information, "We are deeply committed to the cause of providing social justice to the socially and educationally backward classes among the Muslims." (Sic).

This time around, Chief Minister YSR Reddy has tried to circumvent objections raised for extending reservations to the minority community by putting Muslims in 15 different classes  in category E of the backward classes, covering nearly 85 per cent of the community. Thus, technically speaking, the new quota is based on backwardness not religion. It also complies with the Supreme Court’s benchmark of 50 per cent reservation.

Having burnt his fingers twice over, Reddy doesn’t want to take chances. Recall, in 2004 and 2005 the State Government had earmarked five per cent reservations for the entire Muslim community (excluding the creamy layer) first by issuing a Government order and subsequently by promulgating an ordinance. But both times the Andhra Pradesh High Court played spoilsport and struck it down as the overall reservations would exceed the ceiling.  

Given the level of dishonesty and irresponsibility which increasingly governs our political system, this step will, no doubt, lead to disaster. If reservation based on castes is bad, affirmative action on communal basis is horrendous. Ominous reasoning is being appendaged. It would bring the Muslims into the mainstream. Ensure harmony between the majority-minority communities. It would prevent Muslims from being exploited any more as vote-banks by the so-called secular parties.

Really? Aren’t the Congress’s intentions just that? Exploitation in the name of social and economic upliftment. Never mind if it pushes India back by a century. The moot point is clear. How does it better the lot of the mass of Muslims, if a few persons get jobs? Is the Muslim identity distinct from that of the Indian? Is he an Indian Muslim or a Muslim Indian?

Clearly, the State Government’s seems to have bitten off more than it can chew. In its quest to wean the Muslims back into the Congress fold, it may end up losing the miniscule support it now enjoys. Most significantly, all religious, social and political organizations of the Muslims, including Jamiat-e-Islami and Majlis-e-Iltehadul Muslimeen have outrightly rejected the Government’s move. In fact, they are livid and see the proposed ordinance as a dangerous move to create caste differences among the Muslims and divide the community.

Not just that. Islamic seminaries in the State have also issued a 'fatwa' against the proposal and termed it unIslamic. Six well-known seminaries, led by the Jamia Nizamia, a 125-year-old Islamic university based in Hyderabad, have asserted: "Muslims all over the world are equal. There is no distinction of caste, colour or race among them. Therefore creating distinction among them for reservation is improper under the Shariat. It is the political parties that have given way to discrimination on the basis of caste among Muslims.”

Added Asaduddin Owaisi, Hyderabad MP, “There is no empirical evidence or data or population figures. How can they go ahead with this? If the Government wants to provide reservations then it should be provided to Muslims who are socially, economically and educationally backward, without dividing them on the basis of caste or baradaries, as Karnataka has done.”

More. To counter the State Government’s move, various religious, political and social organizations have joined hands to form the Muslim United Action Committee (MUAC). Without mincing words, the clerics have warned the Chief Minister that his ordinance would prove ‘suicidal’ for the Congress in the elections. "The Congress came to power with the support of the Muslim community. By taking this step, it will lose our support," cautioned the MUAC President. Muslims account for about 9 per cent of the 76 million population in Andhra Pradesh.

Importantly, is the case of Muslim “backwardness” on all fours with that of the Scheduled Castes and other disadvantaged sections of the Hindu community? Not at all. True, a large number of Hindus from the lowest strata of its society converted to Islam and Christianity to get rid of the stigma of being ‘untouchables’ and denied the right to live a dignified life. Thus creating a new set of Muslims and leading to the emergence of a new social hierarchy for availing of the economic benefits.

True also that the Government’s fundamental mission is to uplift the poor and the backward classes, educate and provide them equal opportunities.  But when education and job reservations are calculated on the basis of belonging to a particular caste and religion per se, it goes against Article 15(1) of the Indian Constitution.  

The problem arises when our netagan in their quest for votes recklessly label the minorities, Muslims and Christians, as backward or dalits for availing the quotas. Knowing full well that Islam does not accept any casteism and therefore no Islamic country provides reservations to the poor among the Muslims by labelling them dalits or backwards. Or has the Pope issued a new Bull that erstwhile Hindu dalits who have embraced Christianity should continue to be called dalits and be provided reservations as Dalit Christians?

Tragically, so blinded are our politicians in their quest for power that none can see the Frankenstein they recklessly continue to create. By giving legitimacy to a communal quota, religious bigotry at its most ferocious could end up in carving once more a blood-stained path across our country. Clearly, this could sow the poisonous seeds for a new communal movement and separate electorates inspired by the two-nation theory that tragically led to India’s partition.

What next? Unless we stem the rot, the day is not far when Muslims could once again demand communal representation both in the legislative assemblies of the States and in Parliament. Incredibly enough, the Christians of Andhra Pradesh are not far behind. They are now the latest to hop on to the reservation bandwagon. A new Christian Front is now demanding that the State Government follow the Tamil Nadu example wherein Christians are included in the 5 per cent quota for the Muslims. Given the fact that they account 10-15 per cent of the State’s population. Once this trend catches on, there will then be a demand before very long for separate quotas for the Sikhs, the Buddhists, the Jains and many more. May be even the Brahmins and the Thakurs will demand reservation!

It is time to remember Babasaheb Ambedkar’s wise words against reservations and the hidden monsters behind them. He said: “Reservation too should be done away with because it becomes a hindrance to development.” Clearly, the Government has honestly to end this evil of separatism and casteism which is beginning to eat into the vitals of even Islam and Christianity. Reservations are no answer for fulfilling the people’s aspirations. These will not only further divide our people on creed-caste lines but come in the way of narrowing India’s burgeoning divide between the haves and the have-nots.

Our petty power-at all-cost polity has to think beyond vote-bank politics and look at the perilous implications of their decisions. What exactly is the message the Government proposes to send across the country by its mindless reservation policy? It must desist from sowing the seeds of another partition? Vote-bank politics must not be allowed to continue recklessly and play havoc with India’s unity and integrity and progress. ---- INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)